Hair drier with fan and heater



Aug. 24, E965 R. D. UTHOFF HAIR DRIER WITH FAN AND HEATER 3 Sheets-Sheetl Filed June 19. .1961

INVENTOR.'

J M2M TORNE YS.

Aug. 24, 1965 I R. D. @HOFF 3,202,797

HAIR DRIER WITH FAN AND HEATER Filed June 19. 1961 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 1N VEN TOR.'

ATTORNEYS.

Aug- 24, 1965 R. D. UTHOFF 3,202,797

HAIR DRIER WITH FAN AND HEATER Filed June 19( 1961 5 Sheets-Sheet 3Mull@ 17a? 725 /23 f/s Ils/VENTOR.1

United States Patent O 3,262,797 HAllR DREER Willi FAN AND HEATER RobertD. Utho, Jefferson County, near Fenton, Mo., assignor to Knapp-MonarchCompany, St. Louis, Mo., a corporation of Delaware Filed June 19, 1961,Ser. No. 118,069 4 Claims. (Cl. 219-370) This invention relates ingeneral to hair drier appliances and more particularly to a hair drierhaving irnproved detachable or separable components and arranged so asto reduce the danger of either electrical shock or heat or fire damagewhile providing a more efficient electrical circuitry.

Hair drier appliances basically comprise an arrangement for blowingheated air over hair. While at first blush it would seem that a hairdrier should involve no more than the provision of a heating element anda fan arrangement for blowing a heated air stream in the desireddirection, nevertheless, such an over simplification is erroneousbecause the said basic requirement must be modified to meet a number ofother existing conditions to provide a desirable commercial product.Thus, a fan and its motor occupy considerable space and are ofnoticeable` weight, especially if they must be manually supported whiledirecting the air stream. On the other hand, it is desirable to leavethe hands free and, therefore, the fan and attendant circuitry must becapable of being positioned at a remote location, and the heated airmust be fed to the hair through some coupling means which may be simplypositioned on the head. The latter requisite necessitates a simpleeconomical headdress, or hood, which may be positioned on the headtogether with a simple, eiiicient and economical means for quickly andeasily detaching or engaging an air feed hose with both the hood and theair supply from the fan.

As the heated air must be fed over some distance be-` fore reaching thehair, it must be quite hot at the time it is projected from the heater.However, for economical production it is desirable that the housing forthe fan and motor be of a light moldable plastic or similar materialthat may be subject to heat damage, and, therefore, an arrangement mustbe provided for protecting the housing from the heat while at the sametime the electrical circuitry and moving parts of the drier must be sodisposed as not to be susceptible of inadvertent touching in the eventthe housing is inadvertently ruptured or dismantled.

In addition, the heated air must be supplied in a variety oftemperatures which normally necessitates various circuit arrangementsand utilization of elements that must be economically adjusted andselectively operable for performing their required functions.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a hairdrier having improved means for overcoming the above and otherdifficulties. Basically, this is done by mounting the motor and fan on asheet metal chassis and projecting, or exporting, the heated air througha duct formed in the metal chassis and its housing to a flexible hose orcoupling which extends to the hood or headdress. The housing is thuscarried by the chassis so as to be substantially completely separatedand isolated from the heated air, with the exception of a smallconnection aperture which serves as the coupling means to the hose thatconnects to the housing. The elongated hose is provided with identicalcoupling elements on either end interchangeably mating with a couplingrim around the apertures provided both in the headdress and in thehousing. The electrical circuitry of the drier is arranged to provideair of different temperatures with but a single bi-metal, orthermostatic, element which is preset, or calibrated, so as to avoidadjustment problems. The electrical circuitry for heating the air iscompletely enclosed within the chassis so that accidental rupture ordismantling of the housing, which surrounds the chassis, does not exposesaid circuitry, thereby reducing hazards.

The arrangement for accomplishing the above described purposes togetherWith other objectives and purposes of the present invention, will becomeapparent on examination of the following specification, claims anddrawings wherein:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective View of a hair drier embodying my invention;

FIGURE 2 is a bottom view of the air supply chassis and housing assemblywith the bottom closure panel removed;

FIGURE 3 is a cross-sectional view taken substantially along the line 33 of FIGURE 2; i

FIGURE 4 is a cross-sectional view taken substantially along the line4-4 of FIGURE 3;

FIGURE 5 is a partial cross-sectional view illustrating the matingcoupling elements of the hose and air supply duct on the housing;

FIGURE 6 is a perspective view of the heating coil assembly;

FIGURE 7 is an exploded perspective view of the basic components of theair supply; and

FIGURE 8 is a diagram of the electrical circuitry of the hair drier.

Referring now to the figures, the hair drier is indicated generally bythe reference character 10. It cornprises an air supply assembly,indicated at 12, that includes a housing 13, a hose 14 for transportingthe air from housing 13, and an appropriate hood, or coniiningheaddress, 16 through which the air is fed to the hair.

The hood 16 comprises a flexible plastic bag 18 having an opening 20which permits of positioning the hood onto a persons head. A drawstring22 is provided adjacent the opening 20 for adjusting its size so thatthe hood 16 lits snugly about the head, Suitable spaced apart dischargeapertures 24 are provided in the hood for enabling the air to beproperly exhausted, while a wire band 26 within bag 18 acts to maintainthe hood in a desired configuration. The hood is supplied with air fromthe hose 14, which is detachably engaged with a grommet 27 disposedopposite apertures 24. It will be noted that air entering hood 16 musttravel the complete length of the hood before being exhausted throughapertures 24. This provides the maximum of contact between the warm airand the hair to considerably accelerate the drying time.

The hose 14 comprises a iiexible, cylindrically shaped, corrugated,plastic element 28 in which a form-sustaining Wire coil 30 is embedded,as perhaps best seen in FIG- URE 5. Each end of the hose 14 terminatesin an identical light plastic coupling element 32, which is providedwith female threads or corrugations 34 to provide for positiveengagement with the hose corrugations. Each coupling element 32 is alsoprovided with an integrally formed male coupling element in the form ofa tubular stud 36 of reduced dimension relative to body portion 32,having formed thereon a plurality of spaced apart lock projections 38.

Both the hood 16 and the housing 13 are provided with suitable beadcoupling elements surrounding the aperture therein for releasablyreceiving the lock projections 3S. In FIGURE 5, the aperture 40 in thehousing is illustrated surrounded by a coupling bead, or rim, 42 pastwhich the projections 38 may be snapped to provide for releasablecoupling. The body portion of the coupling element 32 being larger thanthe tubular stud s spears? 36 prevents the hose and coupling elementfrom being inserted into the aperture 4t) beyond the length of stud 36.A similar arrangement is provided for engaging the grommet 27 in thehood.

The air supply assembly 12 comprises thementioned housing'13 which isappropriately designed to provide a desired aesthetic appearance and forshielding the apparatus assembly therein. The housing 13 provides asuitably apertured forward horizontal wall 44 through which projectvarious control buttons 46, 4S, 5d and 52 which enable selections to bemade in the desired functions to be performed by the drier. Suitablecontrol legends are provided on upright wall 44a of housing 13 adjacentthe respective control buttons. n

The control buttons are suitably supported on a molded switch block 66having appropriate terminals, as seen in FIGURES 2-4, to whichelectrical connections may be extended. The switch block 60 is of anywell known selector type wherein the depression of any one of thebuttons 46-52 releases any other depressed button while causing theselected operation to then take place. Both the switch block 6d andhousing 13 are carried upon a sheet metal chassis 64 hereinafterdescribed.

The chassis 64 includes a generally rectangular top wall 66 anddepending front and back walls 67a and 67b and side walls 68a and 6Sb.The front wall 67a is provided with an aperture 69, seen in FIGURES 2and 7, which is in spaced register with the aperture 46 in the housing13 through which the air is directed. A metal grillwork, or

` mesh, 79 is fastened across the aperture 69 to permit air flowtherethrough while preventing insertion of articles therethrough.

As seen in FIGURE 4, the switch block 60 is fastened to the top wall 66by means of a plurality of screws '71 extending through appropriateapertures defined in brackets 72 that are formed integral with the topwall 66.

. The sheet metal chassis 64 also carries a fan assembly '75 as bestseen in FIGURES 3 and 7. This fanV assembly s' comprises a motor 77 thatdrives a centrifugal impeller 79. The motor comprises the stacked ironlaminations 80 and the field coil 82 located above the impeller 79 andwhich serve to rotate the shaft 84 in a conventional manner. Theimpeller 79 is molded from plastic and comprises a bottom disc 86 fromwhich a plurality of radial fan blades 88 project upwardly at rightangles.

The motor 77 is assembled onto theftop wall 66 of chassis 64 with driveshaft 84 projecting downwardly through an enlarged aperture 87 in thetop wall. Apertures are provided in opposite sides of the plate stack 8dfor enabling bolts 92 to be inserted therethrough for engagement withnuts 94 for mounting the motor onto brackets 96 integrally formed on thetop wall 66. In addition, a pair of rigidifying U-shaped brackets 98 areinterposed between the plate stack S and the top wall 66, and their legsserve as stops for accurately positioning the motor 77 with respect tothe chassis. The impeller 79 is connected to the shaft 84 with theblades $8 thereof located below chassis topwall 66. A portion of eldcoil 82 is located centrally of aperture 87 but is spaced from the edgethereof to provide space for flow of air therethrough from outsidechassis 64 to the interior of chassis 64 where the air is acted upon bythe impeller '79.

The radial outer edges of fan blades 38 and the periphery of the disc 86are partially enclosed by a circular sheet metal member 1110, as bestseen in FIGURES 2 and 7, and which serves to confine the air ow. Thebracket 16u is provided with a series of ears 102 which are inserted inrespective openings in the chassis top wall 66 and side wall 6812respectively. The ears are then bent over or twisted to secure thebracket 100 in position. At one end, the bracket 100 terminates in astraight portion 104 having suitable ears 106 and 10M which likewisepermit the portion 104 to be fastened to the top wall 66 and to the wall67a adjacent the opening 69. The straight portion 104 and the spacedparallel portion of 4 wall 63k define therebetween a duct 163 throughwhich the air is directed to the opening 69 in the chassis for passageinto aperture 49 in the housing and to the hose 14 attached thereto.

A heating coil assembly 112, best seen in FIGURES 2, 4 and 6, is mountedin the duct 16S spaced between walls 68h and 1114 for the purpose ofheating the air passing through the duct. The assembly 112 comprises alat core member 114, of ceramic or other insulating material, mounted ona pair of ears 116 carried by the chassis side wall 635. A heating coil11S is wrapped around the ceramic core element 114 and extends throughsuitably located indentations in the ceramic.

The heating coil 11S is composed of two segments 1181: and 1185. Theceramic core carries four eyelets 119, 121B, 121 and 122. A bimetal 123that is normally in closed circuit condition interconnects eyelets 119and 1211. Segment 118e is the longest segment of coil 11S and extendsbetween eyelet 120 and 121. Segment 11811 extends between eyelet 121 and122. The common lead 164 connects to eyelet 119, so that when thecontrols call` for HOT air, current passes from eyelet 119, throughbimetal 123 to eyelet 121D, and through segment 11351 to eyelet 121which is connected by a wire 174 to the appropriate control switch. Whenthe controls call for WARM air, the switch connection to eyelet 121 isdisconnected and heating segment 11Sb-acting as a dropping resistor isconnected in series with heating segment 118g so that a reduced currenttheny passes from eyelet 121 through segment 11811 to eyelet 122 whichis connected by a wire 171B to its appropriate control switch.

The bimetal 123 is ixedly secured at one end by eyelet 12d. Thethickness and length of bimetal 123 is so selected that it hassutlicient pre-tension on its deective end such that due to the heightof the head of eyelet 119, the bimetal 123 deiects and opens contact ata tempera- Y ture of about 200 E., which protects against over heatingof any part of the appliance in the event of failure of the fan motor.The bimetal is also arranged so that its free end is spaced further fromthe closest portion of heating segment 116e than from the closestportion of heating segment 118]). This arrangement makes it possible toutilize the single bimetal 123 to effect control regardless of whetherthe HOT section 118:1 of the heating element is energized, or whetherthe entire element, 113a and 11Sb, is energized to provide a WARMoperation. The heating element and bimetal may be easily calibrated at afixed position since all parts are securely carried on the rigid ceramicframework element 114.

The electrical wire connections between the heating coil assembly 112and the switch block 60 are extended through an opening 126 defined inthe wall portion 104.

The power supply leads 154a and 154i, seen in FIG- URE 8, are brought inthrough a suitable opening in a sheet metal bottom panel 131, whichcloses olf the interior of chassis 64. The power leads then pass betweenthe wall 68a and curved sheet metal member 166 to the switch block 611.The wall 63a is bulged outwardly at 68a to accommodate disposing thepower leads between bulge 68a and member 101i. The leads from the switchblock 60 to the motor 77 are extended through a grommet 132 in the topwall 66 of the chassis.

Until now the discussion has pertained primarily to the componentsmounted on the chassis 64 and the manner in which the air supply iscoupled with the hood 16. It will be appreciated that the air supplyassembly or unit 12 without the housing 13 is a completely operativeunit in which the electrical and moving elements are arranged anddisposed so as to prevent manual contact therewith. The stylized housing13 formed of plastic may be assembled onto the chassis, and, if for anyreason, the housing is subjected to damage, undesirable manual contactwith the heating coil circuit, or the exposed connections to the switchblock 60, or with the fan blades is still almost impossible.

The housing 13 defines a top wall 134 from which depend side walls 136,a back wall 138, and front wall 44a which merges with apertured wall 44.The back wall 138 is vertically slotted as shown at 140 in FIGURES 2 and3 so that air may be drawn into the housing 13 for entry throughaperture 87 to the enclosure defined by chassis 64 that is closed off atthe bottom by wall 131. A suitable screen mesh 141 is provided acrossslots 140 both for aesthetic reasons and to limit passage of undesirableparticles therethrough. Extending laterally from the lower edge of sidewalls 136 are laterally extending walls 142. A pair of internallythreaded elongated bosses 144 formed integrally with the housing 13depend from the interior of the housing adjacent wall 44a, and a secondpair of shorter abutments 145 depend from walls 142 spaced forwardly `ofthe rear wall 138.

The top wall 66 of chassis 64 engages only bosses 144 and abutments 145to space the chassis from housing 13. An attachment plate 146,positioned above wall 66 of chassis 64, s formed'with spaced sections14611,` each of which engages a plurality of tongues 147 molded integralwith housing 13 and in line with the lower end of respective airopenings 140. A pair of tongues 147e are positioned between the platesections 146a and in the plane of plate 146, thereby operating toproperly position the plate 146 with respect to its attachment tochassis 64. A first pair of screws 14811 extend through apertures in topwall 66 to secure to tapped bosses 144. A second pair of screws 148bextend through elongated slots 149 in top wall 66 for connection toattachment plate 146.

The foregoing arrangement rigidly mounts chassis 64 in housing 13 withthe side walls of the chassis spaced from the side walls of the housingto provide a heatinsulating air space therebetween, as can best be seenin FIGURE 2. The only engagement tof chassis 64 with housing 13 is atbosses 144 and abutments 145, and through engagement of plate 146 withtongues 147.

To close off the bottom of the housing 13 and the chassis 64, there isprovided the bottom wall 131 of sheet metal which is secured to chassis64 by means of a plurality of screws 151 that connect to tapped tabs 152carried at the lower edge of the chassis. Four of said screws 151 areelongated and are located adjacent the corners of the device, and eachcarries a support foot 150 of insulating material.

The power cord 154 enters the bottom wall 131 through a grommet 156 andthen follows the contour of circular wall 100 to adjacent the switchblock 60 where the cord is split so that one lead 154a connects to aterminal 158 and the other lead 154b goes to connector 160 from whenceextend parallel leads 162 and 164. Lead 162 extends through grommet 132to the motor and a return lead 166 from the motor connects to switchblock terminal 168. The lead 164 connects to terminal 119 of the heaterelement. A lead 170 extends from switch block terminal 172 to heaterterminal 122. A lead 174 extends from switch block terminal 176 toheater terminal 121.

FIGURE 8 illustrates the control circuit for the drier. The switches aretherein represented by different positions to which a schematic wipermay be operated to simplify the circuit representation. It will be seenthat with switch 46 depressed, no circuit is completed, and the drier 10is in the OFF condition. Depression of switch 52 completes a circuit forthe field coil 82 of the motor 77 and simultaneously completes a circuitthrough only heating coil portion 118a and through the thermal element120 to establish the HOT condition.

Depression of switch 50 operates to energize the two heating coilsegments 118e and 118b in series, to establish a WARM condition. Lastly,the depression of switch 48 operates to open the circuit to the heatingcoil 118 while maintaining the circuit to the field coil 82 closed. Themotor S therefore operates to continue operation for providing an airflow which remains at normal atmospheric temperature.

While there has been shown and described a particular embodiment of thisinvention, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that variouschanges and modifications may be made therein without departing from theinvention and, therefore, it is intended in the appended claims to coverall such changes and modifications as fall within the true spirit andscope of the invention.

What l claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of theUnited States, is:

1. A hair drier comprising, in combination: metallic chassis meansincluding an apertured top wall and depending upright side wall meanswhich substantially define and enclose below said top wall a fan chamberwith an extension thereof which serves as an elongated air flowpassageway that terminates at an aperture defined in a side wall of saidchassis means, a fan mounted on said chassis means in said chamber andarranged to direct air under pressure through said air ow passagewaytoward said aperture, heating means supported by said chassis means andpositioned in said chamber for heating the air directed from said fan, acontrol switch assembly carried by said chassis means, circuit meanssupported by said chassis means below said top wall of the chassis meansand inwardly of the side wall means and arranged to be selectivelycontrolled by said switch lassembly for effecting operations thatinclude energizing selected portions of said heating element to heat theair being discharged through the air flow passageway to selectedtemperature levels, said switch assembly simultaneously operating saidfan to drive air through said passageway, a housing of non-conductivematerial surrounding said chassis means in spaced relation from saidchassis means to define a thermal and electrically insulating air spacebetween said chassis means and said housing, said housing defining adischarge aperture therein spaced from the side wall of the chassismeans at which said air flow passageway terminates and being alignedwith said air flow passageway to receive therethrough the stream of airdirected by said fan through the air flow passageway, and connectormeans on said housing adjacent said aperture adapted for releasablyreceiving an air conduit and being operative to maintain the conduitspaced from said chassis.

2. A device as set forth in claim 1 wherein the heating includes acombination heater and thermostat control therefor positioned in the airdischarge passageway, and there being a grillwork on said chassis meansacross the air discharge passageway at its terminus and spaced betweensaid heater means and the aperture in said housing.

3. A hair drier as in claim 1 wherein the heating means includes acombination heater and thermostat control therefor which comprises, incombination, an insulating core member, a heater element wound upon saidcore member and defining a first heater whose individual energizationproduces a relatively high heat output and second current-reducingheater on said core member spaced from said first heater means andarranged to be selectively energized in series with the first heater andto thereby produce a total heat output that is lower than the said highheat output; and a single bimetal thermostat mounted on said coreelement and arranged relative to said first and second heaters to besensitive to the heat output of both the rst heater energized alone landto the first and second heater energized together as modified by heattransfer to the fluid passing thereover, said thermostat operating toterminate energization of the entire heater upon the ambient temperaturereaching a predetermined level, and regardless of whether only the firstheater is energized or whether both the first and second heaters areenergized.

4. A hair drier as in claim 1 wherein the heating means includes acombination heater and thermostat control therefor which comprises, incombination, an insulating core member, a heater element Wound upon saidcore member and defining a first heater whose individual enervgizationproduces a relatively high heat output and a second current-reducingheater on said core member spaced from said first heater means andarranged to be lselectively energized in series with the rst heater andt0 operating to terminate energization of the entire heater upon theambient temperature reaching a predetermined level, and regardless ofwhether only the first heater is energized orwhether both the first andsecond heaters are energized, fand said thermostat being positionedbetween said spaced irst and second heaters and closer to one 0f thesaid two heaters.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1/22 Hamilton200--138 3/35 `Martin 2l9-39.13 10/43 Hudson 34--48 8/49 Mathews 34-99 X12/51 Johnson 219-504 4/53 Clemens 34-48 5/56 Crise 34-48 X 5/58Bentzman 219-366 10/61V Jepson 34-99 6/63 Omohundro 219-366 FORETGNPATENTS 2/60 France.

WILLTAM F. ODEA, Acting Primary Examiner. NORMAN YUDKOFF, Examiner.

1. A HAIR DRIER COMPRISING, IN COMBINATION: METALLIC CHASSIS MEANSINCLUDING AN APERTURED TOP WALL AND DEPENDING UPRIGHT SIDE WALL MEANSWHICH SUBSTANTIALLY DEFINE AND ENCLOSED BELOW SAID TOP WALL A FANCHAMBER WITH AN EXTENSION THEREOF WHICH SERVES AS AN ELONGATED AIR FLOWPASSAGEWAY THAT TERMINATES AT AN APERTURE DEFINED IN A SIDE WALL OF SAIDCHASSIS MEANS, A FAN MOUNTED ON SAID CHASSIS MEANS IN SAID CHAMBER ANDARRANGED TO DIRECT AIR UNDER PRESSURE THROUGH SAID AIR FLOW PASSAGEWAYTOWARD SAID APERTURE, HEATING MEANS SUPPORTED BY SAID CHASSIS MEANS ANDPOSITIONED IN SAID CHAMBER FOR HEATING THE AIR DIRECTED FROM SAID FAN, ACONTROL SWITCH ASSEMBLY CARRIED BY SAID CHASSIS MEANS, CIRCUIT MEANSSUPPORTED BY SAID CHASSIS MEANS BELOW SAID TOP WALL OF THE CHASSIS MEANSAND INWARDLY OF THE SIDE WALL MEANS AND ARRANGED TO BE SELECTIVELYCONTROLLED BY SAID SWITCH ASSEMBLY FOR EFFECTING OPERATIONS THAT INCLUDEENERGIZING SELECTED PORTIONS OF SAID HEATING ELEMENT TO HEAT THE AIRBEING DISCHARGED THROUGH THE AIR FLOW PASSAGEWAY TO SELECTED TEMPERATURELEVELS, SAID SWITCH ASSEMBLY SIMULTANEOUSLY OPERATING SAID FAN TO DEIVEAIR THROUGH SAID PASSAGEWAY, A HOUSING OF